


The Need To Know

by stargatefan_archivist



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Drama, Episode Related, Episode: s09e01-02 Avalon, Episode: s09e03 Origin, Gen, Graphic Description
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-01
Updated: 2008-10-01
Packaged: 2018-12-17 17:03:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,092
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11855922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargatefan_archivist/pseuds/stargatefan_archivist
Summary: Daniel and Vala are not untouched by events in the Ori galaxy





	The Need To Know

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Yuma, the archivist: this work was originally archived at [Stargatefan.com](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Stargatefan.com). To preserve the archive, we began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [StargateFan Archive Collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/StargateFan_Archive_Collection).

The villagers were beginning a raucous celebration of the new treaty. Daniel scowled at the enormous stack of wood that had been piled in the center of town. They weren’t taking the warnings about the Ori seriously. These people were much more interested in an excuse for a festival than in a threat that seemed remote, even impossible. One of the men threw a torch on the stack of wood and pitch. The fire caught and the wood was engulfed with roaring flame.

Daniel stepped back involuntarily. Then he looked for Vala. This might not be good. He didn’t see her at first. The area was filling with people carrying trays of food and barrels of mead to tables near one of the buildings. She was standing at the edge of the square, as far away from the fire as she could get, and still remain within sight of the rest of the team. She stared into the flames, eyes unfocused and wide. Definitely not good.

“Vala might need-” Daniel turned to Cam, only to find that he was already watching Vala and on top of the situation.

“Yeah, I see that. Why don’t you patrol the perimeter for a bit? Get her out of here.”

Daniel crossed to the other side of the square, dodging celebrants, some of whom had already been into the mead and were staggering dangerously close to the fire.

Vala didn’t notice his approach. Her gaze never wavered from the flames.

“Vala.”

She gave a start as she seemed to realize that she was no longer alone, and plastered a broad smile on her face that was utterly, obviously false. “Daniel! Lovely party, isn’t it? Shall we break protocol and join the festivities?”

He took her elbow and turned her away from the fire. “We’re going to patrol the perimeter. Come on. And you don’t have to pretend that didn’t bother you. I’m not as keen on fire as I used to be, either.” Fire, especially on this scale, was inseparably entwined with the memory of Vala burning, the smell of burnt flesh, and the sound of screaming that came back to him all too often.

As they moved away from the square and the bonfire, Daniel saw her shoulders relax, and the tense lines around her eyes softened, but her brow was still furrowed and the concern had not left her face. He tried to think of something to say, but there was nothing.

Starting to reach out, he dropped his hand as she moved ahead of him. She walked without speaking until they were well away from the square. Resting her hands on her weapon, she gave him a brief glance then turned away, her eyes on the barren landscape outside the town. “You told them because of me…You told the Ori about this galaxy to stop them from burning me alive.”

Daniel’s mouth tightened. Damn. He’d hoped she hadn’t thought about that. Weeks had passed with no mention of it, and he’d hoped… “Yes. I did. There was no reason to think that they would want to expand into our galaxy. We didn’t know what they were. I would have done the same for any human being who was about to be burned. You didn’t cause this. I made the choice.” 

There was a long silence as they circled the area, dust rising into the still air from their footsteps.

Vala stared out over the brush that grew up to the outlying houses. “Would you make the same choice, knowing what you know now?”

Daniel pushed back a sudden wave of anger and looked away. She was upset. She wasn’t trying to make him think about horrible, impossible decisions; about how he would have felt; the impossibility of living with the decision to allow another person to be burned alive, even to save a galaxy. She wasn’t trying to make him dredge up the thoughts that he had been trying to keep locked away… Why would she ask him that?

He adjusted his grip on the P-90 and thought about the perimeter. He thought about brush, and dust, anything other than the choice he had made, the destruction and death it had brought. The more he tried to push those thoughts down, the more they rushed through his mind. The smell of smoke and the bitter smell of burning hair. The heat of the fire against his skin as he fought to reach her. The roar of the flames as her silhouette flared bright against the sky before her charred body dropped. 

He thought of all the worlds decimated by the Ori, the people lying dead and unburied in the streets. Plague and famine; senselessness, waste, and sorrow… Subjugation and slavery on world after world, free of the Goa’uld for a pitifully short time before falling to the Ori. He thought about the choices; the hopeless, irresolvable choices.

Vala stepped in front of him and stopped him with a raised hand on his chest. “Would you?”

He pushed her hand away. “I don’t know. I don’t know!” His jaw clenched. “I would let myself be burned, but I don’t know if I could ever let anyone do that to someone else, not without trying to stop it. Even for a galaxy. I don’t know!” He stared into her eyes, trying to see what it was she wanted from him. “What would you have me do?”

Her eyes were bleak as her stare met his. “I don’t know, Daniel, that’s the problem. Any of us might have to make the same choice at any time. You might need to know. As might I.” She turned sharply to head back to the village, but stopped and turned back. “This isn’t your fault, either, Daniel. No one could have known. You weren’t wrong.” 

Daniel turned away, shaking his head. “I don’t regret my choice. I regret the outcome. I regret the choices I have to make now. You were right. I do need to know. We all need to know.”

“But not tonight. Come back to the village with me.”

He shook his head. “There’s a perimeter to walk.” 

Daniel turned back to his chosen path, blindly placing one foot in front of the other. He heard Vala’s footsteps on the dry ground. It wouldn’t take her long to get back to the village. Instead, her elbow brushed his, as her stride lengthened to join him. 

They continued their patrol around the helpless, unheeding village in silence, until darkness fell and the path faded from sight.


End file.
